The Orphanage

We spent an entire day at the orphange yesterday and i will never be the same. we drove an hour and half out of mumbai in to a smaller city. the nazarene church and orphange are all in one building. the pastor of the church and his wife and the pastor who runs the orphange and his wife also live in the same building. the children sleep in a room upstairs. they just got bunkbeds a few weeks ago, before that they were sleeping on the floor. but there wasnt enough money to buy mattreses or sheets so they have a peice of wood laid down in the middle of the bed with a small carpet over that and the children sleep there. there are 16 children in all and we were told that some are HIV positive. all of the children only speak marati, the language spoken in the state we are in, but it didnt hinder our time with them at all. we were with them from 10 AM- 9 PM. we did many things including: played soccer, played with balloons, hot wheels cars, painted the girls nails, sang songs (they knew several in English), ate lunch, and ran around throwing kids in th air. the children were so full of life and happy to be with us. they wore us out! haha it was great though, we just arent used to the heat. they have filtered water there to drink but nothing is cold it is all a litte warm. they went and got us a bottle of cold coke but the wrapper was off the bottle and the expiration date was well exceeded but none of us cared! it was the best coke i have every had! Pastor Omega, who is in charge of the children, is such a Godly man who truely understands the mission of God. he loves the children so much and they love him. they are always wanting attention. the children are so well discplined! i have never seen children so well behaved, seriously. they wake up every morining at 5:30 AM and pray, sing worships song, and recite scriture. the children know many versus by heart. they recited to us Psalms 100, 102, and 32 by heart. we were all floored! also 2 of them named all the books of the bible for us too. these children are so smart. they also pray, worship, and recited scripture in the evening around 7 PM. we got to be there for this time. the children were on their knees with hands raised and eyes closed for 30 minutes! they were truely worshiping, i could see the holy sprirt in their lives. i was talking to pastor omega and he said that he has requested for a refridgerator, freezer, TV, and mattreses but they just isnt enough money. i cant even believe he is running an orphage without a refridgerator or freezer! everyone here has such a stong faith, yesterday at the orphange challenged me in many ways. please pray for these beautiful children, pastor omenga, and his wife.